A/N: Inspired by Episode 5 – 'American Goddess' – Danny learns about the compulsion women put upon themselves to look good.

Okay, not my best story, but I ran out of ideas for it and got too excited by 'Nickel and Dimed' to put much more effort toward this vignette.

Fit and Trim

'Another day, another case,' Samantha sighed. She thought of poor Lynette so desperate for love and attention; desperate enough to endure surgery upon painful surgery. She was standing in the women's restroom staring at herself in the mirror. Sure there were bits and pieces she wasn't happy with, but she didn't think that she'd ever resort to cosmetic surgery. She shuddered feeling sorry for those who believed their outward appearance defined who they were. She took a step back from the mirror so it showed her entire body. 'Gotta get to the gym,' she murmured to herself as she left the restroom.

Before she made it to her desk, Martin intercepted her. He easily matched his stride to hers and spoke in a hushed, yet eager tone, "So are you coming over tonight?"

"Oh, Martin I can't. I promised Danny that we'd watch the football game together. We try to get together every week for the game, but only actually see it together about once a season. And tonight's out night. Oh, but I bet you could come, he wouldn't mind," she added quickly.

Martin tried to hide it, but he felt a tinge of jealousy at the thought of Danny having Samantha to himself that night even though he knew that they were just friends. He reminded himself that he didn't want to smother Samantha and they had seen each other almost every night last week and most of the weekend so he begged off, "No, you probably need some 'friend' time with Danny. I hope you have fun."

"Okay," Samantha responded, glad that Martin wasn't upset that she had plans with someone other than him.

She returned to her desk and Danny walked over, "We still on for tonight?"

"You bet, my place. The game starts at 9:00, but I thought you could bring pizza by earlier." Danny laughed, but agreed to the deal.

Danny showed up around 7:00 carrying a large pizza with everything on it, just the way Samantha liked it. Danny knew that he'd have to pick off the green peppers and onions, but it was a small sacrifice to see Samantha happy. He was wondering if he should brooch the topic of Jack's divorce with her, but decided to save it for another time, he wanted to have fun tonight and bringing up Jack's name might ruin that.

Samantha answered the door wearing her Packers jersey even thought they were not playing that night. He laughed, she always wore the same thing on their Monday night game nights. But he looked at his own clothing and realized he was a man of tradition too, he had on his Giants jersey.

Samantha welcomed him into her apartment and opened the pizza box on the table. Danny went to the kitchen to get some drinks from the refrigerator. He open it and began rummaging around to see all of what she had. Stored in the very back behind some rarely used condiments he saw them. He saw the two cans of Fit and Trim diet drink he'd seen at Lynnette's place. He thought back to the comments he had made about the type of women who drink it. Immediately he felt like an idiot. He was amazed that Samantha, who visited the gym daily, still felt the need to indulge in the diet fads.

Danny wanted to apologize to Samantha for his comments, but didn't know how to bring up the subject. During dinner he counted how many slices of pizza she ate and noted that instead of indulging in soda or beer she drank water. He wondered why he hadn't noticed it before. By the time the game started, he decided that he wasn't going to bring the subject up, he didn't want to focus more attention of the issue than he already had. He made a mental note to compliment Samantha more regularly and Vivian too. Perhaps society has promoted unfair standards for women's appearance and since he couldn't change society all at once, maybe he could affect the attitudes and self-confidence of the women around him.